Cozener

Summary:
All she can do is fight. Fight, and never back down or give up. Never show any hurt or pain, be brave and show her enemies a strong face. War is a hard thing to do. Bella Swan is close to just losing it. Her fiance is kept down with the power of another Volturi member, who is ruthlessly trying to capture her and all of her family-siblings and Cullens. She's the only one who can stop the fight. But can she find it in herself to do it? Sequel to Deceiver.

Notes:
Most charecters are owned by Stephenie Meyers. Becka, Aaron, Alex, KJ, Jasmine and the new Volturi members are all just a prt of my imagination that I created to go with the plot.

11. Chapter 11

Until that moment in time, I had absolutely no idea that vampires could go into shock. Sure, if you were a human-ish vampire like me you could pass out, sleep, ect. None of that was something I minded. But I didn’t know shock could be included to that list.

When Martha brought up the research I had done with KJ in Italy for months that had been under the radar until very recently, I had felt a sudden pressure in my chest and head. Tunnel vision appeared, and then I couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything, which was terrifying. Vampires could concentrate on multiple things at once normally, and not being able to was like losing sight and hearing, which alone was terrifying. Mixing it all was one of the scariest moments of my existence.

I dimly felt someone’s hands reach for the steering wheel and tear my hands off of it before yanking me up and off the gas petal. The car lurched to a stop, and my head snapped forward before I felt myself lose the ability to support my limbs. Something tugged me out of the car as I feebly tried to lift my head without success.

“I didn’t know vampires could go into shock,” another voice said casually. “Unless it’s one of the weird things that only KJ’s bunch can do.”

“I think it is,” Edward said quietly, shaking me a little more.

“Stop it,” I moaned. “I don’t know if I can throw up, but I’m beginning to wonder. If I can go in shock, I can probably do other things.” I opened my eyes to stare grumpily at Edward, whose face showed strong relief before he pulled me tightly to him again.

“What happened?” he whispered into my hair. He kissed the top of my head and breathed in strongly. “One second you were fine, and the next you went into shock? What did Martha say to upset you that badly?”

I glanced at Martha who was looking at me expectedly. “You have to promise not to tell anyone at all, even the rest of your family,” I said coldly. He looked taken aback by my tone, and simply nodded. “KJ and I came up with a way to mix venoms. It works on newborns. It’ll make you somewhat like me and the others, but it’ll be like your stuck between the human disguise and real vampire form.”

“And you’ll have the perfect restraint,” Martha added. I felt the world spin around slightly as I realized how much she seemed to actually know. Edward seemed to realize this and hushed her.

“How….how did you figure all this out?” I shook my head slightly to try and concentrate better. I was still amazed that the secret I had been keeping seemed to not ever be a real secret.

Martha just shrugged. “I actually paid attention when you were in Italy. Aro had me follow you right after I joined. I noticed you kept going and doing some pretty weird things, and guessed that you were experimenting with something.”

“So it was you that was always shadowing me,” I gasped, realization creeping in. I always felt something following me, but whenever I tried to check it out, no one would be there.

Martha grinned. “It got kind of annoying with you trying to find me every few seconds. I could barely watch you!” She shook her head in fake disappointment.

“Do you think that maybe we should continue this conversation elsewhere?’ Edward suddenly said in a strained voice. I looked at him for a moment, and saw him concentrating on something in the distance.

“Can you read anyone’s mind?” I gasped.

He looked down and nodded. “It happened as soon as you went into shock. I guess your shield went down. But I can hear Jade now, and she has Felix, Demetri and Heidi with her.”

My eyes widened, before a wicked thought came to my mind. A smile began to slowly form on my face and it didn’t escape anyone’s notice. “What’s so funny?” Martha asked as Edward set me down and we quickly went to my car.

“I just realized something very obvious that I should have thought of ages ago!” I exclaimed. Edward and Martha still looked confused, so I elaborated as we started to speed down the highway. “If I can just block Jade’s thoughts…”

Edward’s expression was euphoric. “Of course! Then she couldn’t use her powers at all on anyone, and then we could use our powers against her!”

Martha wasn’t so optimistic. “Can you even do that?” she asked carefully.

I shrugged. “I should be able to. It’s not like she’s a shield like me or anything,” I said nonchalantly. “Anyway, she doesn’t even know how to block people yet. You said she still had anger issues,”I said to Edward, who nodded. “Okay, well remember how I couldn’t control my powers when I got too angry? It seems she has the same issues.”

He grinned. “So we get her angry enough so that she loses control for a moment, and then you lock up her mind. Then we can get rid of her.” There was a ferocious longing in his voice that would have scared me as a human.

“You can have her if you want. I just want Felix, really.” Behind me, Martha laughed. “And it seems not many people will mind him no longer existing.

“Except Gianna,” Martha piped in with good humor. I laughed in agreement, glancing in the rearview mirror. No one was following us, or at least not close enough for me to feel.

Edward looked surprised. “She’s still there?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes and nodded. “Yes, she is. I don’t think they were exactly planning on changing her, so they’re letting her live until she gets suspicious of their motives.” I shuddered at how cynical the Volturi could be.

Edward sighed. “It definitely sounds like Caius to do that. Aro wouldn’t care as long as she remained competent, and Marcus wouldn’t even notice.”

I flashed him a quick smile. “Of course you would know,” I teased. He smirked slightly and glanced into the mirror just as I had done earlier. It seemed I wasn’t the only one a little stressed.

“Why aren’t they coming?” he murmured.

“Obviously to make us feel safe,” Martha spat in disgust. “That way when they do try to get us, we’ll be totally off-guard and easily beaten.”

“But you might soon,” Martha persisted. “Just be careful and watch out. Even without me or Becka they can still surprise you.”

I snorted, and Edward and Martha both stared at me. “What? She totally seems to think that she and Becka can surprise me. I can feel both of you coming almost two seconds before you appear, and that gives me plenty of time to hide.” As an example, I became invisible for a moment and then reappeared, laughing at their faces.

“It disturbs me slightly when you do that,” Edward admitted quietly. “I can’t smell, see or hear you. It makes it seem like you disappeared like Becka.”

“Yeah, but you would be able to feel me there,” I said. “Right after I was changed, the first thing that happened when everyone came into the room I was in was me disappearing because they scared me. We figured out what it was pretty fast. The shield stuff came later, and I could make things even harder to notice then.”

Edward became quiet at the mention of my change, and I knew he felt guilty still, even though I begged him not to. I grabbed his hand and kissed his knuckles, smiling at him gently. He smiled back, and regained his light mood. He kissed my hand too, since I was still holding on to his. The mood suddenly seemed much tenderer.